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Once again Giza had wandered away from her family. This was becoming more and more common lately, and for longer bits of time. This morning she woke up on her third day straight split from them. Of course her visions told her exactly where her mother was, so she never fel too far from her...She stretched, yawned, and rolled over onto her back.

"Blue sky again! Seems like the weather is lucky for me lately." It was true, there had been little rain for a time. She always liked sun best, though rain helped things grow. It made her warm and lazy. "I can take a nap later though...Oof!" She shoved herself to her feet and shook out her fur. "Let's see now...ah!" She picked out what way she'd been going before and set off.

Leaving the pride was hard for him. His mother had said tear felt words the day before, and he left quietly and quickly. The midnight blue male frowned as he looked around the rogue lands, not spotting anything that looked familiar. How would he find his way back home? The negative thoughts continued his onslaught as he wandered further and further from his childhood home. He'd be a man when he came back. A hunter like Ila.

Ears twitching, he heard a voice, it sounded female and not to far away. Then he heard paws on the crunchy grass coming his way. Crouching down low, Dusan tried to blend in with the dismal surroundings, violet eyes wide. Wait for it. He needed to see what it was before attacking. Maybe it was food. He was pretty hungry.

Oh so he was a lion after all! Well it wasn't her fault she'd only seen cubs and adult lions, and none in between! "I've seen other lions! What do you think I did, fell from the sky? My dad's a lion, so's mom but," She reached out to swish her paw through a bit of Dusan's mane. "Dad has more hair! I wasn't sure if you were a lion-lion or maybe a cheetah-lion or a leopard-lion...Not that I've been around many of those either, but y'know, sometimes they don't get good manes so..." She shrugged.

"Haha! I might have wings, but I'm not an angel! They don't even work, see?" She rippled her muscles to make the wing markings 'flap' but no, no lift was provided from them. "But my name's Gizamulika. Oh, you're from a pride? That's neat...my family's not in a pride. Well...the family I have left isn't." She frowned briefly. "So what rank are you trying to get, Dusan? Something cool?" She flopped down on her hind end to listen a bit.

"Oi, oi! The mane is coming in! I'm not quite an adult yet, but I'm not far off." He batted back at her, playfully and smirked a bit. "I don't know... my real dad, but my mom has found her mate from outside the pride. He joined when momma adopted my three cousins because their mother was killed...." Dusan's eyes went sad at the thought of his aunt's death. He had been so mad at her for taking care of them and leaving her real kids with their uncle. Though, Dusan had quickly gotten over that little fiasco.

"Oh, too bad! Momma told me story of Gods and Goddess with wings. Thought maybe you were one!" He chuckled, a deep rumbling sound in his throat. "But yeah. I'm going to follow in my step-dad's paw prints and be a hunter. Maybe work my way up to something else. But for now, a hunter. I want to help momma and dad feed the pride. That's what you do in a pride." He nodded a bit more and watched her. She had kind of a grace to her; a natural grace he wasn't sure she knew about.

She blinked. "Oh, I guess I probably shouldn't have said...I don't know if she wants me to talk about it too much...Mom mated with a mortal to have me. And thank you, my eyes are just like hers, yes...These too." She lifted a paw to show the thorny bramble marks. "I look a lot like her I guess, but my wings are just marks, and mine are white. I like your color more though. It kinda reminds me of Dad's...he's all blue, kinda like you. I like blue."

She wasn't entirely sure how to react to him touching her. Her family did that a lot, and she wanted to lean into it, but Dusan was still a stranger really. Well, he seemed nice, and it was meant as a nice gesture. So she let him do it. He seemed pretty confident; maybe that was what you did in a pride? She'd always thought pride-lions were cool, wanted to go see what pride-life was like...Well neat! She'd remember that the males ruffled the girls' hair...

Well, not all the males ruffled others hair. Some of the males were jerks, like his uncle. But he wasn't going to talk about that right now. Instead, he listened and laughed when she spoke. "My momma's the opposite. Where I'm dark blue, she's light. Where I'm light, she's dark. I look most like momma out of all my family. She called me her mini-her once! And, if you're momma loved your daddy, I'm sure it's OK that they had you. They're family after all!" He nodded sagely and thought a moment before smirking.

"Hey, Giza. You wanna head towards my home? I'm still on my name quest, but... Maybe you could help me out there! Someone's supposed to name me. And you could me my friend, maybe see how the inside of the pride works?" He wasn't trying to rush her or anything. They were several days away from his pride, honestly. He jerked his head for her to follow and waited until she did. Then, when they were walking next to each other, he rubbed his side along hers and gave her a side long glance. "Maybe you could give me my new, adult name. Dusan is my childhood name..."

"Haha you think? I dunno...there's more to being an adult than having a mane, you know." She pranced ahead a bit and looked back over her shoulder to stick her tongue out at him. "You gotta hunt well and do other things, you know!" Of course SHE didn't know what those things were. She was an adult herself, sure, but she'd never had to do real adult work, whatever that was. She'd been sheltered.

"A new beginning?" Woah, was he meaning she should go in and like, stay? Well she wasn't sure about that now! Oh but he had picked out such a cool name for her..."Wings..." She nodded. "Well, maybe we'll see. I do want to SEE your pride at least." She let him catch up, then gave him a little nudge. "That is, if you're an adult soon. Sounds like you have to be one before you go back. Guess I should think of a name while you get working on that mane and stuff."

"I know all that! Just I want my mane first!" He said with a grin, obviously playing. He let her get in front of him and then pounced on her in a playful manner, chewing on her ear and tugging carefully before rolling off and moving like nothing had happened. He was very good at sneak attacks. Of course, he didn't know she was a seer, or what a seer was, so she could have seen it coming! Either way, he was proud of that attack and then listened to her talk some more.

"You can see it. I think you'll like it, too. You could meet my family and the others. Maybe you could come in on a naming ceremony. Cubs can't hear their mother speak until she introduces them to the pride and tells the other their names. At least.... that's what I gathered when I went to my cousin's. I don't really remember mine...." His voice trailed off as he thought about it and sighed carefully. "The males aren't allowed in the den with the female when giving birth, I think. I think that's what mother told me." He looked at her again and gave her a dashing, boyish smile.

"Take your time. We're a few days away from my pride." With that, he moved up ahead of her again, sniffing out which direction he went so he could lead her back to the pride. Maybe he'd just found a friend on this long and difficult road.